Born in Brooklyn, Nilsson moved to Los Angeles as a teenager to escape his family's poor financial situation. While working as a computer programmer at a bank, he grew interested in musical composition and close-harmony singing and was successful in having some of his songs recorded by various artists, such as the Monkees. In 1967, he debuted on RCA Victor with the LP Pandemonium Shadow Show, followed by a variety of releases that included a collaboration with Randy Newman (Nilsson Sings Newman, 1970) and the original children's story The Point! (1971).
He created the first remix album, Aerial Pandemonium Ballet, in 1971, and recorded the first mashup song ("You Can't Do That") in 1967. His most commercially successful album, Nilsson Schmilsson (1971), produced the international top 10 singles "Without You" and "Coconut". His other top 10 hit, "Everybody's Talkin'" (1968), was featured prominently in the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy. A version of Nilsson's "One," released by Three Dog Night in 1969, also reached the U.S. top 10.
During a 1968 press conference, The Beatles were asked what their favorite American group was and answered "Nilsson." Sometimes called "the American Beatle," he soon formed close friendships with John Lennon and Ringo Starr, joining them in the Hollywood Vampires drinking club. He and Lennon produced one collaborative album, Pussy Cats (1974). After 1977, Nilsson left RCA, and his record output diminished. In response to Lennon's 1980 murder, he took a hiatus from the music industry to campaign for gun control. For the rest of his life, he recorded only sporadically. In 1994, Nilsson died of a heart attack while in the midst of recording what became his last album, Losst and Founnd (2019).
The craft of Nilsson's songs and the defiant attitude he projected remain touchstones for later generations of indie rock musicians. Nilsson was voted No. 62 in Rolling Stone's 2015 list of the "100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time," where he was described as "a pioneer of the Los Angeles studio sound" and "a crucial bridge" between 1960s psychedelia and the 1970s singer-songwriter era. The RIAA certified Nilsson Schmilsson and Son of Schmilsson (1972) as gold records, indicating over 500,000 units sold each. He earned two Grammy Awards (for "Everybody's Talkin'" and "Without You").
Full Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Nilsson
Discography
Spotlight on Nilsson (1966)
Pandemonium Shadow Show (1967)
Aerial Ballet (1968)
Skidoo (1968) (soundtrack)
Harry (1969)
Nilsson Sings Newman (1970)
The Point! (1970) (studio album and soundtrack)
Nilsson Schmilsson (1971)
Son of Schmilsson (1972)
A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night (1973)
Son of Dracula (1974) (soundtrack)
Pussy Cats (1974)
Duit on Mon Dei (1975)
Sandman (1976)
...That's the Way It Is (1976)
Knnillssonn (1977)
Flash Harry (1980)
Popeye (1980) (soundtrack)
Losst and Founnd (2019)
She's Leaving Home
Harry Nilsson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
She's silently closing her bedroom door
Just leaving a note that she hoped would say more
She goes downstairs to the kitchen
Clutching her handkerchief
She's quietly turning the backdoor key
She's stepping outside, and she is free
Is leaving, sacrificed most of our lives, home
We gave her everything money could buy
For so many years
Father snores as his wife gets into her dressing gown
She picks up the note that is lying there
She's standing alone at the top of the stairs
She breaks down and cries to her husband
"Daddy, daddy, our baby, she's gone!
How could she treat me so thoughtlessly
Tell me, why would she do this thing to me?"
She, we never thought of ourselves
Is leaving, never a thought for ourselves, home
We struggled hard all of our lives to get by
Oh, yes we did
Struggled for so many years
It's Friday morning at nine o'clock she is far away
She's got away
She's waiting to keep an appointment that she's made
She's meeting a man from the motor trade
She, what did we do that was wrong
Is leaving, we never knew that we did anything wrong, home
Fun is the one thing that money cannot buy
Something inside that was always denied for so many years
Why should she treat us so thoughtlessly?
Why should she do this to me?
Our baby's leaving home
I've been living alone for so many years
Bye-bye, oh bye-bye, goodbye
Harry Nilsson's song, She's Leaving Home, tells the emotional story of a young girl who packs up and leaves home, without providing any explanation to her parents. The song has a melancholic melody that reflects the sadness and despair that the girl's parents experience after discovering that their daughter is gone. Wednesday morning at five o'clock, the day begins, and the girl sneaks out of her room, quietly leaving a note for her parents. She goes downstairs, opens the back door, and steps outside into the world. She is free.
The lyrics reveal that the girl's parents sacrificed everything to provide for her, including most of their lives. They gave her everything that money could buy for so many years, but she chooses to leave them without any explanation. Her devastated mother breaks down and cries to her husband to understand how their daughter could be so thoughtless in her actions.
The girl is portrayed as leaving to find something that she may have been missing while living with her parents - fun. The parents never thought of themselves and struggled hard all their lives to provide for their daughter, often at the expense of their own enjoyment. Yet, fun is the one thing that money cannot buy, and something inside them was always denied for so many years. The song concludes with the girl leaving, leaving her parents wondering why she treated them so thoughtlessly, and why she would do this to them.
Line by Line Meaning
Wednesday morning at five o'clock as the day begins
It's early morning and the day is starting.
She's silently closing her bedroom door
She's leaving the room without making any noise.
Just leaving a note that she hoped would say more
She left a note, but it didn't explain everything.
She goes downstairs to the kitchen
She heads to the kitchen.
Clutching her handkerchief
She's holding onto her handkerchief tightly.
She's quietly turning the backdoor key
She's silently unlocking the backdoor.
She's stepping outside, and she is free
She's leaving the house and feels free.
She, we gave her most of our lives
We sacrificed most of our lives for her.
Is leaving, sacrificed most of our lives, home
She's leaving her childhood home.
We gave her everything money could buy
We provided her with everything she could ever want.
Father snores as his wife gets into her dressing gown
The father is still asleep while the mother gets dressed.
She picks up the note that is lying there
The mother finds the note on the stairs and reads it.
She's standing alone at the top of the stairs
The mother is left standing alone on the stairs.
She breaks down and cries to her husband
The mother cries and talks to her husband.
"Daddy, daddy, our baby, she's gone!
The mother cries out to her husband about their daughter leaving.
How could she treat me so thoughtlessly
The mother is hurt by her daughter's thoughtless actions.
Tell me, why would she do this thing to me?"
The mother doesn't understand why her daughter would leave like this.
She, we never thought of ourselves
We always put our daughter first.
Is leaving, never a thought for ourselves, home
She's leaving without thinking about her parents' feelings.
We struggled hard all of our lives to get by
We worked hard our whole lives to make ends meet.
Oh, yes we did
It's true.
It's Friday morning at nine o'clock she is far away
It's a few days later and she's still gone.
She's got away
She's left and isn't coming back soon.
She's waiting to keep an appointment that she's made
She's waiting to meet someone at a scheduled time.
She's meeting a man from the motor trade
She's meeting a man who works with cars.
She, what did we do that was wrong
We don't understand what we did wrong for her to leave.
Is leaving, we never knew that we did anything wrong, home
She's leaving home without telling us why and we don't know what we did wrong.
Fun is the one thing that money cannot buy
Money can't buy happiness.
Something inside that was always denied for so many years
There was something missing or denied for years.
Why should she treat us so thoughtlessly?
Why would she be so cruel to us?
Why should she do this to me?
Why would she hurt me like this?
Our baby's leaving home
Our daughter is leaving home.
I've been living alone for so many years
The father has been alone for a long time.
Bye-bye, oh bye-bye, goodbye
Goodbye.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: John Lennon, Paul Mccartney
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind